190 AGAINST UNCNAI1ITABLENESS they behold some belovedtexts, and their negligenceof all others, or at least by the colours of prejudice that they throw upon them, each triumphs in his own sentiments, and pronounces the apostles and prophets of his side. Then he lets fly many a sharp invec- tive against all the men that presume to oppose him ; for in his sense they oppose the apostles themselves, and fight against the authority of God. But when a man takes a bible into his hand without a pre- conceived scheme in his head, and though he may make use of systems to secure himself from inconsistencies, yet he puts them not in the place of the holy scriptures, but resolves to form his body of divinity by the New Testament, and derive all his opi- nions and practices thence : he will then find so many expres- sions that seem to favour the severalcontending parties of Chris- tians, that in some points he will perhaps be tempted to doubt of all opinions, andsometimes have much ado to secure himself from the danger of eternal scepticism : When in any doubtful point his judgment is led to a determination,it is always with great caution, and by slow degrees : He is not carried by vio- lence to any dogmatical conclusion ; he is modest in his asser- tions, and gentle towards all whose judgment and conscience have determined them another way, because he met with so many probable arguments on their side, in the time of his dubi- tation and enquiry that had almost fixed his opinion the same way too. If I may be permitted to speak of myself, ,I might acquaint the world with my own experience. After some years spent in the perusal of controversial authors, and finding them insufficient to settle my judgment and conscience in some great points of religion, I resolved to seek a determination of my thoughts from the epistles of St. Paul, and especially in that weighty' doctrine of justification : I perused his letter to the Romans in the original, with the most fixed meditation, laborious study, and importunate requests to God, for several months together ; First without con- sulting any commentator, and afterwards called in the assistance of the best critics and interpreters. I very narrowly observed the daily motionsof my own mind : I found it very hard to root out old prejudices, and to escape the danger of new ones : I met with some expressions of the apostle that swayed me towards oneopinion, and others that inclined the balance of my thoughts anotherway, and it was no easy matter to maintain my judgment in an equal poise, till some just and weighty argument gave the determination ; so many crossing notions, perplexing difficulties and seeming repugnances lay in my way, that I most heartily bless the divine goodness that enabled me at last to surmount them all, and established my judgment andconscienee in that glorious and forsaken doctrine of the justification of a sinner in
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